Out of nine Zilla Parishad (ZP) seats in Jharsuguda district, three belong to lakhanpur block. With 33 panchayats in lakhanpur, Congress has all along exercised its supremacy in last four elections.
Congress’s support base in lakhanpur block helped it capture the Jharsuguda ZP president post from 1997 till 2012. This year, the ZP president post being reserved for the backward class, everybody is keeping a close watch on lakhanpur Zone-2 seat. This seat is also reserved for the women of backward caste and all parties, including Congress, are trying to capture the seat by any means.
On analyzing the results of last four ZP elections, it is found that Congress has excelled in a majority seats. During 1997, Basudeb Bhoi (CPI), Rani Munda (BJP) and Dhaleswar Bhoi (Congress) were elected from three seats, while in 2002 election Dusmant Banjara (Congress), Goutam Pradhan(BJD) and Nalini Mahananda (Congress) and in 2007 Sujata Seth (Congress), Nur Bidya Tuti (Congress) and Kharabela Sa (Congress), in 2012 election Kusasan Pradhan (Congress), Hiteswari Tihiria (Congress) and Sradhanjali Pradhan (Congress) were elected.
Once Brajrajnagar constituency was the centre of CPI as for six times the CPI candidates got elected from this constituency.
CPI and Congress nominees were having command over this seat. But, in last Assembly election, BJP won from Brajrajnagar for the first time. The Congress vote bank was greatly affected while BJP and BJD improved their tallies. CPI, however, has not been able to perform well.